"Pastor Ted," as he apparently prefers (?) to be called, held forth for the Harper's reporter, Jeff Sharlet, on a variety of topics. The graphs which attracted my particular attention, with my comments in itals:

One of Pastor Ted's favorite books is Thomas Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree, which is now required reading for the hundreds of pastors under Ted's spiritual authority across the country. From Friedman, Pastor Ted says he learned that everything, including spirituality, can be understood as a commodity. And unregulated trade, he concluded, was the key to achieving worldly freedom.

First mistake: Not everything is a commodity. For instance, faith, hope, love, and human beings are not "things" that can be bought and sold. I am as pro-capitalism as the next red-blooded American, but the free market is not the Gospel, and in its extreme form - which reduces priceless things like spirituality to mere commodities - it is not even COMPATIBLE with the Gospel.

Free-market economics is a “truth” Ted says he learned in his first job in professional Christendom, as a Bible smuggler in Eastern Europe. Globalization, he believes, is merely a vehicle for the spread of Christianity.

He's probably right that globalization could spread Christianity - if properly used.

He means Protestantism in particular; Catholics, he said, “constantly look back.” He went on: “And the nations dominated by Catholicism look back. They don't tend to create our greatest entrepreneurs, inventors, research and development."

"Typically, Catholic nations aren't shooting people into space. Protestantism, though, always looks to the future. A typical kid raised in Protestantism dreams about the future. A typical kid raised in Catholicism values and relishes the past, the saints, the history."

The Vatican doesn't shoot people into space, that's true. We do have a well-known, hundreds-of-years-old, Jesuit-run observatory, though. And it's true, Catholics are supposed to love history. I'm exhibit number one ;) However, somehow I think that my choice to pursue history as a specialization within my journalism major was motivated by multiple elements, not just by my stinky backward-looking Catholicness!

It's also true that Protestantism is in some respects an anti-historical movement; from a certain point of view, it couldn't be otherwise, as the oldest of the Protestant sects is only 400-odd years old, and Christ lived two thousand years ago. But just for Pastor Ted's information, I have met plenty of Protestants who are just as fanatical about history as I am. So there! The nerd-dom extends beyond the boundaries of Holy Mother Church!

I can't resist adding: Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. So if you really want to look forward, better look back, first.

"That is one of the changes that is happening in America. In America the descendants of the Protestants, the Puritan descendants, we want to create a better future, and our speakers say that sort of thing. But with the influx of people from Mexico, they don't tend to be the ones that go to universities and become our research-and-development people. And so in that way I see a little clash of civilizations.”

Hmmm. That's right, Pastor Ted, the "clash of civilizations" isn't between the Islamic East and the Christian West, it's between the good solid SUV-driving, Lysol-fresh, upper-middle-class American Evangelicals and the dirty Mexican Catholics. You know, those Latinos who are your brothers and sisters in Christ, in spite of having only a desire to work hard and live honestly and not having too many college degrees. I'm guessing that even if his neighborhood turned 90 percent Hispanic, Pastor Ted would never insert any Spanish into the prayers of his services. Forget about whether they are here legally or not - ministering to people in their own language might attract the wrong element, you know.

Haggard's remarks to Harper's caused me to remember the comments of Francis Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago, who has suggested that Catholics in America have become so compromised by the surrounding hyper-Protestant culture that they are more Calvinist in their thinking than anything - they view criminals as irredeemable, they are very free-market based and tend to focus on the good of the individual instead of the good of the community. Interesting, and probably not untrue.

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The Holy Name of Jesus

"Jesus, Name full of glory, grace, love and strength! You are the refuge of those who repent, our banner of warfare in this life, the medicine of souls, the comfort of those who mourn, the delight of those who believe, the light of those who preach the true faith, the wages of those who toil, the healing of the sick. To You our devotion aspires; by You our prayers are received; we delight in contemplating You. O Name of Jesus, You are the glory of all the saints for eternity. Amen.” - St. Bernardine of Siena

Praise the Lord!Praise, O servants of the Lord!Praise the name of the Lord!Blessed be the name of the Lordfrom this time forth and forevermore!From the rising of the sun to its settingthe name of the Lord is to be praised!

-Psalm 113.1-3

ACT OF CONSECRATIONTo You, Lord Jesus Christ, I consecrate myself today through Your Most Holy Name. I consecrate to You all my thoughts, words and deeds, all my sufferings and labors, all my hopes, consolations and joys. I consecrate to You my body with all its senses, my soul with all its faculties, my entire being without reserve. In particular I consecrate to You my heart so that it may love only You and may be consumed as a victim in the fire of Your divine love. Jesus, I place my trust in Your most Holy and Sacred Name. I beg for the remission of all my sins through Your infinite mercy. I place within Your hands all my cares and anxieties. Do with me what You will, my Jesus. Take this offering of myself and give me a place within Your Divine Heart forever. I promise to love You and honor You and to spread, as much as I can, devotion to Your most Holy Name, until I draw my dying breath. Amen.